According to an article in Morning Consult, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) is urging leading physician groups to endorse mandatory education for opioid prescribers, "a concept that has gained support in recent months as lawmakers and federal officials have taken steps to combat the growing opioid crisis." According to Durbin, “The best way to reduce the number of Americans with an opioid addiction — which oftentimes leads to life-long opioid dependency, overdose, and death — is to ensure that patients never become addicted in the first place."

Durbin Pushes Mandatory Prescriber Education for Physicians

The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat sent letters to physicians groups Wednesday urging them to endorse mandatory education for opioid prescribers.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) is encouraging the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Dental Association to back mandatory education, a concept that has gained support in recent months as lawmakers and federal officials have taken steps to combat the growing opioid crisis.

Durbin also suggested the groups back initiatives to require physicians to check prescription drug monitoring programs before prescribing opioids. He’s also suggesting they support increased transparency around prescribing practices and that the groups help members to be “more judicious” in their prescribing habits.

“The best way to reduce the number of Americans with an opioid addiction — which oftentimes leads to life-long opioid dependency, overdose, and death — is to ensure that patients never become addicted in the first place,” he writes in each of the letters, which are similar.​“When it comes to the opioid and heroin crisis, each stakeholder needs to do their part,” Durbin writes to each group, before urging each group to accept their role in the crisis.

“The AMA, as the leading voice of the medical community, and its members must accept responsibility for the role it has played, and continues to play, in the ongoing prescription opioid epidemic,” he writes in the letter to the AMA. “The AMA should take immediate action to reduce the number of opioids that are prescribed when not medically necessary.”